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Yep this is great news for both Ford fans and the series as a whole! The Ford Falcon that is currently in the series has been out of production for around 18 months now (Ford closed down its Australian manufacturing operations in 2016) so there has been a lot of uncertainty around Ford's future involvement in Supercars.
The Mustang has been on sale here for a couple of years now, so there was a lot of speculation that it may come in to the series as it is a good fit (rear wheel drive, V8 engine, etc) but of course it would need Ford's approval in terms of intellectual property for the body, badging, etc. I'm sure the fact that Roger Penske is involved in the Supercars series would have helped this process along....
Mustangs have a good heritage in Australian racing, in addition to the 80's Group A version we have been discussing here, they were also raced here extensively from '65-'72 when the rules of the day allowed and are remembered fondly.
Cant' wait to see a Supercars version hit the track, should be a beast. I'm expecting one to be ready and putting on some demo laps at Bathurst in October.

No worries champ. Hope they help get your build moving again!
I did see your thread on the Sierra on the ozautobuilders forum, looks great. I have a kit and the Roodecals (and the resin dash and wheels) ready to go for that one, whenever I get around to it....... I must have bought those decals 20 years ago now.
I haven't ordered any yet, but I was looking closer at the Mustang decal art on Patto's website and unfortunately there seem to be some inaccuracies. The 17 for the roof is way too big and out of proportion, and for some reason the "Tube Mills" wording for the sides of the car are in an italics font. There is also a photo of a built car in the Gallery section that shows the same thing. Some of the XMO logos look a bit stretched vertically but I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt on that one - if they are applied to a sloping surface they probably look correct when viewed directly.
Hopefully he can alter the art a bit on request (the italics bit should be an easy fix at least), I have also read that he will print some for you if you provide the artwork. Will have to cross that bridge when it comes I suppose. Have you ever dealt with him in this regard?

My pleasure mate! As promised, here's a few more that may be of some use to you. (Do you reckon those tabs on the roll cage are old RaceCam mounts that are still in place?) Chucked a couple in looking up at the front part of the roll cage as well.
And yes I can empathise with your predicament - model building always has to fall to the bottom of the priority pile I'm afraid. Been that way for me for the past 12 years.......sigh.
M

Hi Shawn,
I'll do what I can to help mate! This of course is Mustang 2, if the roll cage of this car wasn't modified in the years after being sold (and researching this would suggest it was not) then this should be accurate.
Mustang 1 has actually been restored back to 1985/86 spec and would be the best basis for reference material but hey, beggars can't be choosers! I'm sure the Bowden's will restore Mustang 2 to be period correct one day as well.
Let me know if there are any other angles or shots you need champ.
Matt
(Note there are a few pics that are meant to be in portrait, just couldn't upload them that way.)

Correct, afx. That picture is from Bathurst 1985, held in October. The homologation update for the newer front bumper, grille, etc was approved on August 1st of that year. My version will represent the car raced in the Australian Touring Car Championship (made up of sprint races) which ran from February to July of that year. The endurance races such as Bathurst were held later in the year and were not part of that series.
The car in your picture above is the exact same chassis that I photographed in the museum.

Yep the hood scoop currently fitted to the car in the museum is an addition made by one of the car's later owners - it was never raced by Johnson like that.
This car has never been fully restored back to it's 1985/86 spec (just the external livery has been applied) so all of the mods made by later owners remain in place. I intend to carefully replicate the car in my very first picture.
(So the museum car is not period correct, but it was still awesome to see it in the metal regardless!)

Not an issue at all as it turns out......the real car is like that!
I have been going through the photos I took of the real car at the museum, and one clearly shows the narrower '79-'82 cowl section along with the later model hood. So no modifications required!
Often when a certain chassis is raced over a number of seasons, the bodywork is cosmetically updated to match the latest model in the showrooms and I am guessing that occurred with this car as well. Was probably built as a pre-'82 model by Zakspeed and updated to 1983 configuration before being sold to Johnson. Johnson himself also further updated it to the 85/86 bodywork once the rules of the day allowed it. This was commonplace in Australian touring car racing at the time.
I am told that the inner door trims in the car also support this version of events as well, they are too early to be 1983 or later.

Hi all,
In the last day or so I have started having problems replying both to forums posts as well as PMs.
Each time I hit 'Submit' I am taken to a MCM page with a 404-type error message, stating that "we were unable to find the page you were looking for" (or words to that effect).
Is this a common thing with an easy solution? Glitch following the update? It's driving me crazy so if anyone has advice I'm all ears. Thanks!
EDIT: Obviously this new post went through OK, so it just seems to be for replies.....

I've not done this before myself, but I'd be tempted to fill in the depression with successive dabs of Tamiya Clear Red enamel (leaving plenty of time for each coat to cure) and sanding the surface flush once it has built up enough.
Then I would airbrush the whole lens with a coat of the same paint to bring back the gloss finish required.
Just a theory though - no idea if it would actually work.......

Don, your eagle eyes serve you well! The car I photographed in the museum does indeed have 1985 GT bodywork, as the car was allowed a model update for Group A racing from August 1985. Body wise, both the nose and rear bumper were updated, the rear spoiler changed and the cowl scoop disappeared. There were some mechanical upgrades too, the main one I believe was a switch to a roller cam which I understand occurred with the road car from the 85 model also. This updated car is the version that Shawn is converting to, shown in his post above. The car was raced from Sept '85 thru to the end of '86 in this configuration. I plan to build the early season version of the car that ran the '83 GT bodywork prior to the August update. The best picture I can find of that rear spoiler is on the white version of the car in late 1984, see below. The rear spoiler in any of the available kits definitely matches this one. Zen your offer is extremely generous and much appreciated. I will be in touch with you very soon.

Hi Shawn, great to see your work! Good to see you are doing the later version, that scratchbuilding around the nose looks awesome. And as you said, the '85 AGP Support was its only victory so it's a version worth doing. I decided on the ATCC version as it's easily done with the convertible kit nose. Plus I like the BBS wheels better! Looks like I'll be doing 'Mustang 1' (White car '84 Bathurst and '85 ATCC) and you'll end up doing 'Mustang 2' ('85 Sandown 500 thru end of '86). Have you seen the article in the latest issue of Australian Muscle Car? I've been thinking about this conversion for years - and even more so when Patto started producing the decals - and the AMC article has triggered me into researching it a bit more. You read my mind about the Tamiya Sierra interior - just this past day or so I was pondering that as a way of getting a stripped race car-like interior in there, even if it's not 100% accurate. I was rummaging around in the garage tonight trying to find one to take a closer look (I have 4 of them) but I have packed them away too well. Would probably be a fair bit of work to adapt it, but would likely be easier than trying to scratchbuild a bare transmission tunnel, floor bracing, ribbed pressings and so forth. I visited the DJR workshop a couple of years ago and I was thrilled that this car (and the Sierra) was on display that day. Apparently they rotate the cars between Bowden's and the museum these days so it's a case of getting lucky. I took plenty of detail photos of it, so if you are interested in some hardcore reference material let me know and I can burn them to disc and mail them to you if you like. The car in the museum is Mustang 2, although it is a little different to it's DJR days due to modifications made by later owners. I am told that when Dick bought the car back it was simply sprayed green and the livery applied, but has not undergone a complete resto to 85/86 spec. The interior was painted white somewhere along the line for example, and remains that way. There is also a huge dry sump tank in the back seat (visible directly in front of the bloke in my picture above) and a massive fuel tank under the hatch that are not period correct either. I'm sure there will be other details, but the basics are there. For reference, Mustang 1 is in the NSW Hunter Valley these days and is the car in the AMC article. Going by your pics, I definitely need to get me one of those Monogram bodies now! Although it will be a dog's age before I actually get started on the build........ Matt

Thanks again for all your input guys, really appreciate it. Considering the age/price/rarity of the kits that would be suitable, I imagine this is going to come down to which kit I am actually able to find. As you alluded Don, there are certainly pros and cons of each one! Looking at the MPC instructions linked by Steve (thanks so much for those!), I can see how that kit would lend itself better to a stripped out race interior. Certainly I think the interior will be the area that needs the most work for this conversion, especially in terms of the floor (bare transmission tunnel, removed rear seat, etc) which will need significant modification from the road versions. The Monogram option certainly has appeal as well, especially in regards to exterior detail which I prefer to favor. Clear rear lights are always a winner for me as this allows them to be colored properly and they are prominent on the real car (see pic, taken of the car itself at the DJR workshop/museum not far from my place), plus the 1:24 scale will give better compatibility with the resin 17" wheels I have my eye on. Anyway I will have to keep my eye out for kits in the usual places. If anyone has any good suggestions of where to look that would be appreciated. Will likely be a case of watching eBay until something suitable is listed, although I know there are lots of places like Model Roundup that deal with old kits over there in the States. And if anyone has one they are happy to offload, (even just a body and glass in the case of the Monogram, I have everything else) then I would love to hear from you! Matt

Thanks so much for your replies so far guys. Especially to you Don for going to the trouble of digging a kit out to have a look for me! Don - I understand that the actual car in question was based on an '83 GT so I am using that as a basis for my research in terms of bodywork. You are correct that I will also need to get the reverse cowl hood scoop for this build and that was going to be my next question. (Just didn't want to drag the original post out too much!) I was hopeful that maybe there was a resin cast version available out there somewhere, Competition Resins do a generic Cowl Induction Hood Scoop (P/N CRC-107) which may be a starting point otherwise could probably scratchbuild one. Getting an entire MPC kit just for the scoop would be hard to justify...... A forum member called whale392 (Brad) once had a picture in the CBP thread of just such a scoop fitted to the Monogram kit as a mock up (see pic), I would love to ask him where it came from but from his profile he hasn't been on the forum for years. afx - many thanks for your suggestions as well. I was not aware of the MPC 20th Anniversary kit which may also be suitable. I've no idea of its accuracy compared with the Monogram offerings though? (Not saying Mono's are the greatest of all, but in general I have found MPC to be somewhat more simplistic by comparison, just my opinion.) Have had no luck finding any pics of the kit contents or any build reports on it, just one pic of the body on Keith Marks' fotki listings. Looks as though the rear spoiler is a separate piece, although the front grille seems to be missing the three vertical bars which are quite prominent on the real car with the green/black color contrast. Would very interesting to know if it has the hood scoop as one of the 'many optional parts' mentioned on the side of the box though - any idea? As for the wheels I did find a set of resin ones on Hiroboy that would be suitable (and would just kitbash the tires for them), however these Revell ones might be another option. If their wheel centers and rims are separate pieces that would make narrowing them a lot easier, as you said they would be way too wide as they are.

Hi all, At some stage in future I intend to build the Mustang that was raced here in Australia by Dick Johnson in 1985, taking 2nd in that year’s championship. See pic attached. I have also attached a pic of the very same car in white, from the Bathurst race in 1984 where the car was given a shakedown after arriving from Europe (purchased from the Zakspeed team in Germany). It was painted green for 1985 when the Mustang would be Ford’s racer in Australia, as demanded by the rule changes that came in that year. The white color gives a better idea of the front bumper detail required. Many years ago I bought the Monogram 2222 ’83 Convertible (for the nose, front bumper and engine) as well as the Monogram 2243 ’85 SVO (assuming it would be fine for the body). Prompted by a recent magazine article here in Aus however, I have realized that the SVO body will be inaccurate (C-pillar vents are different, incorrect rear wing, etc.) for what I want. Looking into Monogram’s back catalog, I would like to get confirmation from the Fox brains trust here that one of these Monogram kits would be suitable for what I need: Mustang Cobra (2260)Mustang Café Racer (2276)Mustang Indy Pace Car (2250) – although this looks to have slits in the rear spoiler that the others don’t?I understand that these (Plus the '83 Convertible) were all spun off the same tool and should be the best bet for kitbash compatibility with the '83 kit. The three kits above have the earlier tail lights but the ’83 kit has the correct ones so no problems there. Is my research putting me on the right track so far? Without any of these kits in my hand I just have to go off internet pictures so any advice will be hugely appreciated! Matt